Sharing the news long distance

missmossy11

What are some of your favorite ideas for sharing your big news with long distant friends or relatives? Any fun ideas you have done with past pregnancies?

For my son I texted my mother a photo of our ultrasound and asked her if the baby looked more like me or my husband, she loved it.  I'm still trying to figure out something for this pregnancy!

Please share your ideas

My apologies if this was already started, i did a search and didnt see it in our "month club". 

meggyme

Last time I asked if my mom prefered Nana or Grandma. This time I put DD in a big sister shirt and waited until they figured it out during our weekly FaceTime.

bluebell08

meggyme said:

Last time I asked if my mom prefered Nana or Grandma. This time I put DD in a big sister shirt and waited until they figured it out during our weekly FaceTime.

Oh that is a great idea for the shirts and FaceTime!! 

valentynsi

I sent a "best aunt ever" t shirt to my sister and wrote all over the package to call me before she opened it. 

lovesclimbing

I just called them up and said, "we're having a baby." I think I said to my dad, "how would you like another grand baby?" with our daughter. 

novelblessings

My ILs  will be on vacation through mid-August and we are announcing the first weekend of August. So we will probably try to FaceTime them to include them.

missmossy11

I'm thinking this time around I'm going to text photos of my son doing things I would normally send pictures of but have him in a "big brother" shirts or maybe have a sign in the background and see how long it takes everyone to notice. 

valentynsi

I sent a "best aunt ever" t shirt to my sister and wrote all over the package to call me before she opened it.

mschanandlerbong1214

My sister sent us all shirts when she had her first (aunts, uncles, and grandparents). Every time after that the youngest kid had a big sibling shirt on in a picture or FaceTime. 

I gave my parents birthday cards with my sono with my first and then put him in a big brother shirt when we were pregnant with our second. I haven’t decided how we’re doing it this time though. 

JLaVO888

For our announcement we were in San Francisco on vacation when I was about 6 weeks so we texted this picture to everyone. Our phones blew up a few seconds later. 



Then for our gender reveal we sent them these little boxes in the mail. 

navete

Eep, I’m not sure how to tell our parents, both of whom live far away. I was going to hold off until 2nd Tri but we unintentionally told some friends (they directly asked ) so now I’m feeling guilty our parents don’t know yet. The simplest/quickest would be to just call and tell them but since this will be the first grandchild for both (first bio for my dad, my step-siblings have kiddos), it’d be nice to do something special...

Anyway, I’m grateful for this thread so I can browse all your ideas and what you’ve done in the past  

catlady2015

@JLaVO888 - that announcement is adorable!

catlady2015

We found this for dh's parents: 


this will be the first on his side. my dad has 6 grandkids, so we'll find him a cute card. 

applesandbananas23

These ideas are so cute!!! We drove 3 hours to tell my sister in person. My DH wants to Skype his family and say 'we have big news' and let them get all excited and hopeful about a baby and then say 'we are getting another dog!' and then when his sisters get mad at him to tell them about the baby. 

lucysmom2016

Both sets of parents and DH's sis all live in the same town, so it'll be easy to get them together to share the news, but my brother and sis in law live on the other side of the country from us, so I'm not sure how to go about this so that they don't feel excluded. Following for suggestions and ideas!

sejica

@lucysmom2016 if you are planning on finding out the sex, you could switch who gets the news first each time. I would definitely trust my out of town sil to communicate sex to a bakery in the town we live.

catlady2015

@lucysmom2016 - Can you facetime or skype them when you have the family gathering so everyone finds out at the same time? Or give them a call just before everyone comes over so there's no chance of the news getting spoiled? 

lovesclimbing

lucysmom2016 said:

Both sets of parents and DH's sis all live in the same town, so it'll be easy to get them together to share the news, but my brother and sis in law live on the other side of the country from us, so I'm not sure how to go about this so that they don't feel excluded. Following for suggestions and ideas!

Maybe it's just me, but ... I don't really care? My in-laws found out first because we were with them. My parents found out first last time because I was talking about not feeling well, and she asked "do you think you could be pregnant?" It's not a competition. And it's not a value judgement on who we value more. It's just how it works out. The vast majority of families aren't going to be able to tell everyone all at once. 

I'm almost eight weeks, and the only people who know are our parents. We haven't told our siblings yet. If a sibling gets their nose out of joint because x sibling got called or told sooner, I don't have time for that drama, and I'm not going to play along with it.

What do they expect you to do? Fly up there and tell them in person so it's "fair?" 

lucysmom2016

@sejica We're not planning to find out the gender, but that would've been a good idea!

@catlady2015 We will probably end up doing that right after we tell our parents and DH's sis. I think it's just mostly that I wish they could be here, and I'm overthinking it. 

@lovesclimbing I feel like what I said was misleading. My brother and SIL aren't going to get their noses out of joint by any means. It's more about wishing everyone could be together and figuring out how to bridge the distance without feeling like I'm leaving them out. I'm really close with my family, and just want to include them all in such a big moment in our life. 

thedaint87

@lucysmom2016 My family is all local but my brother's GF is currently teaching English in South Korea.  We are super close to her because they've been together a long time, so she's family too. We did a video chat with her right after we told my family and it worked out great. She was still thrilled to hear the news and see DS in his big brother shirt. Don't over think it!  I'm sure they will just be happy for you no matter how/when they find out.  

catlady2015

oh, @lucysmom2016, i totally get it. I want everyone together to tell the news too, but my family is all over the place and getting to tell them all at exactly the same time won't happen. If I have news, I set aside a couple hours and call everybody. The first person (usually my dad) knows he's first and I tell him I'm calling my sisters when we're done, so I just go through the list. Everyone finds out same day, and there's a minimum of hurt feelings. Plus, then everyone knows that everyone knows so no one has to worry about spilling the beans. I understand wanting everyone all together, since DH will probably want to tell his family in person. We're going to have to potentially tell his brother and SIL to make sure they're free to make the drive when we tell his family. Good luck, I hope it goes well!

laur84ns

We live near DH's family and across the country from mine. We are visiting my fam at the end of August so I want to hold out on telling anyone until then. I'll be just over 12 weeks. It's my only opportunity to tell them in person. 
Last time, with DD, we did a gender reveal with DH's family (we had the us tech write the sex and put it in an envelope so it was a surprise to us as well). The plan was to then FaceTime my family a few hours later (due to the time difference) when they woke up and tell them the news. Well my FIL got over excited and texted the results to my sisters. Ugh. Way to ruin the moment and the surprise. So this time around (if all goes well) we will be telling my fam the news first, then DH's fam when we get back from vacation. We'll do a gender reveal with my fam on FaceTime first, then tell DH's fam in person afterwards. That's the best I can do to make sure everyone's surprised and that I get to tell everyone in person!